


Candy-Coated

by anarchisticbabe



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Abusive Parents, Daddy Kink, F/M, Fluff, Kidnapping, Mutism, Overprotective, Possessive Behavior, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:08:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23622895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anarchisticbabe/pseuds/anarchisticbabe
Summary: Aurora is mute. Jerome just gave her a voice.
Relationships: Jerome Valeska/Original Female Character(s), Tabitha Galavan/Barbara Kean
Comments: 6
Kudos: 27





	Candy-Coated

**Author's Note:**

> Hiya, Gothamites!  
> Since this is my first attempt to write in English, don't except much from me.  
> I couldn't find a beta reader (obviously). Whatever ... hope you'll still enjoy this piece of chaos!

  
  


> _Wings, hearts, some things are meant to be torn apart.  
>  Faith, hope, some things are meant to be gone broke._
> 
> _– Killing Butterflies, Lewis Blissett_

_  
_  
  
  
__He was sitting on the ground; his head was placed on his knees. A quiet sob escaped his throat, made his little body shake. He cried behind the Grayson's trailer every night. There he was able to escape from his mother and her lovers for a short moment. Since his brother Jeremiah had left, not only his mother raised her hand against him, but also the countless men from the circus who visited her every day. They constantly drank together, made love and then beat him up. His body was covered with green and blue spots – and every day new ones were added.

Beside the carefree conversations which the circus artists carried on outside their trailers, all of a sudden, light footsteps seemed to approach the boy, which made him jump up in horror. He had assumed that his mother had found him and would grab him by the arm at any moment, drag him against his will back to their trailer to give him another beating.

But it wasn't his mother.

It was a girl.

It was the _**mute**_ girl.

Her blond hair shone in the dim light which glowed from the Ferris wheel and the other small attractions. The girl was dressed in a grey sweater that almost reached the back of her knees, probably belonging to one of her parents. There were small holes on her blue jeans, which apparently were repaired by someone with randomly colored fabric. A white paper bag in her hand sparked the child's interest. But his interest disappeared again after he realized that she had caught him crying. So, with burning cheeks he yelled, "Get lost!"

Even though the mute girl had flinched and pressed the paper bag firmly to her body while her eyes had widened in fear, she did not move. Like a stupid deer she stood there and kept looking at him.

"Get lost," he repeated in a scratchy voice, sinking into the grass and trying to fight against the new tears that were coming to his eyes. He didn't want to cry and yet he couldn't stop. Again, a sob escaped his lips, making his tiny body tremble. "Go away …"

His gaze was now directed to the ground, his vision becoming blurred from second to second. Only vaguely he recognized the worn-out shoes of the girl, who had dared to come closer to him despite his rude words. For a moment something rushed, which made him look up. He blinked the tears away and glanced surprised at the delicious-scented pastry the little girl was holding out to him. It was a cinnamon bun with extra sugar coating.

"For me?" he croaked.

The girl nodded.

He snuffled and wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his cardigan before he uncertainly reached for the baked goods she was offering. With a shy " _Thank you_ " he bit into the cinnamon bun. The corners of his mouth twitched upwards as the frosting melted on his tongue. He hadn't eaten a cinnamon bun for a long time, although it was one of the many favorite cakes he liked to have before lunch.

"Where did you get this?" asked the boy, smacking his lips and lifting the cinnamon bun in the air.

The girl clamped the white paper bag under her left arm and tried to use her hands to tell her counterpart where she got the baked goods from. The boy only frowned, because he couldn't really understand what she wanted to say by waving her hands around like that. He shrugged his shoulders. "I have no idea what you mean."

The mute girl pouted but seemed to understand that they weren't making any progress this way. She moved her lips from which no sound could be heard. The boy seemed even more confused than he had been before, only until he little by little realized that he was supposed to read her lips. For this reason, he stared at them and muttered her silent words: "Yo … your … your un … your uncle? – My uncle?"

He looked at the girl who nodded her head wildly. "So, you stole the cinnamon bun and all the other stuff in your bag from my uncle?"

She thought for a moment, then nodded again.

"Not bad," he praised her negative action. "You have to tell me your secret – after all, he didn't seem to have caught you."

The mute girl smiled, gave another approving nod, and then sat down next to the snake dancer's son that evening, who continued to eat his pastry in peace, constantly glancing at the girl next to him.  
  
  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  
  
"Well, what do we have here?" One of the Lloyds grunted. The girl in front of him had opened her mouth in fright, but not a single tone came out. She pressed the popcorn bag in her hands against her delicately built body, while she lowered her head and tried to scurry past her tormentor. In turn Lloyd did not allow his victim to simply leave and grabbed the girl by the collar. The boys around him laughed at their victim's dumb attempt to run away.

"Come on, Dylan!" One of the artists rooted for Lloyd. "Show the stupid girl who the boss is!"

"How about asking me to let you go?" Lloyd asked with a gloating grin. The girl's lips parted, but she couldn't make a sound, so the next thing she did was flailing around wildly. Lloyd laughed at his foolish victim before he pushed her with a " _Forgot you can't talk_ " so hard that she fell to the ground and the contents of her bag were spread across the grass. The girl cried over the abrasions she could clearly feel on her elbows from Lloyd's fall. The group of boys just laughed.

"So, this is what a mute looks like when she starts crying." Her tormentor grinned. "Kind of lame, if you ask me. Can you even scream? Oh wait … don't tell me. I'll just figure it out myself. - How much pain can you take?"

"How much can you take?" A different voice asked, followed by a fist that hit Lloyd's left eye, causing him to fall to the ground, groaning loudly. A murmur went through the crowd before the one artist yelled, "Valeska!"

He had noticed the spectacle much too late, otherwise he could have intervened earlier and thus prevented the girl's fall. Valeska inspected the girl who was sitting on the ground trembling. Tears were rolling down her burning cheeks, met at the chin and fell from there onto her pink dress. It was his fault she was crying. It was all his fault. He felt his nails digging into the palms of his hands, leaving a sharp stabbing pain. This was all his fault. He should have taken better care of her.

"Damn it, Valeska." Lloyd held with one hand his caught eye. "What's wrong with you? We were just fooling around. No need to play her protector. What does she want with a freak like you anyway? Have you ever looked at your reflection?"

The group of boys began to bawl, flattering the wounded artist, who slowly rose from the ground. But he did not make it very far, because Valeska gave Lloyd a push and he fell again. With a " _I'm gonna break your bones_ " the son of the snake dancer sat down on the boy and hit him with his fists. Lloyd pedaled desperately with his feet, trying to position his arms in front of his face. He dodged some blows while others broke his big nose. The boy under Valeska screamed while he started bleeding from his face until he suddenly fell silent. Valeska's knuckles hurt, but he did not stop beating the artist. He had fallen into a kind of frenzy, felt powerful for the first time and was able to let all the pent-up anger run free. Some of the boys around him shouted that he would kill Lloyd if he didn't check himself, while the others desperately grabbed his wrists and tried to pull him away. Nobody managed to pull Valeska even a bit from the unconscious boy. He saw and heard nothing until suddenly slender fingers closed around his joint, stopping his next blow. The girl sat next to him, her glistening lower lip shaking. She shook her head, wouldn't stop crying. He felt a sudden pain in his chest as he could read the disappointment on her face. One of the boys took advantage of this moment and pushed Valeska from Lloyd, who still seemed to be unresponsive. The son of the snake dancer came to his feet, knocked the dirt off his washed-out jeans, before he turned around and left the tragic scene. He could still hear the others shouting things at him, "Disgusting freak", "Next time Dylan gets his hands on you", "Your mother will wring your neck for this". Maybe he would have reacted under different circumstances, but for the moment he didn't feel like pushing this argument any further. He had done this for the mute girl and when he saw her disappointed expression, it suddenly felt as if he did something wrong. Nevertheless, he didn't understand what he had done wrong.

In the meantime, the girl had been able to catch up with him and had reached out her hand. Valeska escaped her grip just in time while he growled at her, "Get your hands off me and fuck off!"

She shook her head.

"I told you to fuck off!" With flaming eyes, he took a step in her direction and built himself up in front of the small girl, before he added threateningly, "Or I'll hurt you too."

Again, she shook her head.

"Why not?" he snorted.

The girl wanted to reach for his hand, but Valeska managed to avoid her attempt.

"When were you gonna tell me about Lloyd and the others, hmm? Have you wanted to be intimidated by them all your life? They hurt you all the time, and you … you pretended they were your friends. You're a liar."

She made no attempt to clarify the matter. Neither with her hands nor with her mouth. Silently she stood there and stared at him with glassy eyes. Valeska shook his head and then turned with a " _I thought we were friends_ " away from her.

Again, she reached for his hand. Since the boy had not expected it, she made him freeze in place. Reluctantly he turned to her, sparkled at her with angry eyes. Before Valeska could hurl insults at her, she reduced the distance to him, went on her tiptoes and kissed him. It had been more of a fleeting kiss and yet he could taste the salty tears and shimmering lip gloss of strawberries on his lip minutes later. He frowned. Probably for the first time in his life he seemed as mute as she always was.

_She was his first kiss._

"Why … why did you do that?"

She stepped away from him and pointed a finger at herself.

"I," turned Valeska her gesture into words.

He wasn't able to interpret the next movement. She had formed both of her hands into a loose fist that she crossed over her left breast. The boy shook his head, whereupon his counterpart pouted. Then suddenly something seemed to have occurred to her, as the corners of her mouth had happily twitched upwards. She painted with both of her index fingers a heart on the left side of her chest.

"Heart," Valeska said.

The girl clapped her hands in satisfaction. Then she repeated her movements. On the last one she pointed her finger directly at him.

"I – heart – you," he said it out loud. He formed an "O" with his mouth before he interpreted the sentence correctly, "I – love – you. And since you said it to me … you love me?"

She nodded and took his hands in hers – this time he didn't resist. A smile played around the girl's lips while Valeska's cheeks caught fire, his heart pounded faster against his chest and his stomach felt somehow queasy. He didn't know this feeling until now. It was weird. Cozy, but weird.

"Can you promise me something, Aurora?" After a long back and forth he had called her by her first name. She had a beautiful name that he only wanted to say in the most important moments and that was one.

The girl nodded.

"Can you promise to stay with me forever?" His cheeks burned terribly. An eternity seemed to have passed in which he felt like an idiot until she finally reacted. The girl had released his hands to lift her little finger up. She wanted to do the pinky promise. The son of the snake dancer nodded and lifted his little finger up as well, whereupon they both bent them around each others. Valeska smiled happily. _ _ _  
  
  
  
  
___

_Who could have guessed that forever was such a terribly short time?_


End file.
